by Daniel Pipes*

Question asked of Jerusalem Post columnists: “As Kassam rockets continue to pound Sderot, Minister Haim Ramon has suggested responding to the salvos by cutting off vital infrastructure such as water, electricity and gasoline to Gaza for a specific time frame, while the ‘price’ of such measures will be ‘determined by Hamas and its actions’. What is your opinion of this proposition?” For all replies, see “Burning Issues #34: Cut Gaza’s power?“

Believing that if you don’t win a war, you lose it, I have long encouraged the Israeli government to take more assertive measures in response to attacks.

In a Jerusalem Post piece six years ago, Preventing war: Israel’s options I called for shutting off utilities to the Palestinian Authority as well as a host of other measures, such as permitting no transportation in the PA of people or goods beyond basic necessities, implementing the death penalty against murderers, and razing villages from which attacks are launched.

Then and now, such responses have two benefits: First, they send a strong deterrent signal “Hit us and we will hit you back much harder” thereby reducing the number of attacks in the short term. Second, they impress Palestinians with the Israeli will to survive, and so bring closer their eventual acceptance of the Jewish state.

As for the inevitable objection that tough measures will generate ill-will toward Israel, the reply is easy: back when the IDF did deploy deterrent tactics, the country enjoyed a much higher standing internationally. Since 1993, its weakness has earned it not just scorn but also heightened hostility.

For now, however, a deterrent policy remains remote, as Prime Minister Olmert is said to oppose the shutting off of utilities as “collective punishment.” And so will the Palestinian assaults continue.

*Daniel Pipes Weblog
September 6, 2007
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/760
Cross-posted with permission